By Jim Bloch
Donald Trump has always been a bully. At first, he limited his bullying to political opponents. He now has turned the U.S. military against the weakest residents of the U.S. and the weakest countries on Earth. His bully pulpit has become a bully war pit.
Like a 10-year-old during second grade recess, he name-calls, taunts, insults and demeans anyone that challenges or defies him.
He called Republican Supreme Court Justices John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett “fools and lapdogs of the RINOs and left Democrats” after they scuttled his use of tariffs to tyrannize allies and enemies around the globe; the justices were “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.”
Olympic skier Hunter Hess became a “real loser” for expressing doubts about the country he represented.
Trump called Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey “Piggy” when she grilled him about the Epstein files.
Senator Elizabeth Warren became “Pocahontas.” Governor Gretchen Whitmer became “HalfWitmer,” Pete Buttigieg “Alfred E. Neuman.”
President Teddy Roosevelt called the Oval Office a “bully pulpit” from which he could advocate for his polices and educate the electorate. A century and a quarter ago, “bully” was understood to mean “superb” or “wonderful.”
Since his first term, Trump has turned TR’s wonderful platform into a perch from which to bully opponents.
In his second term, despite promising “America first” and an “end to America’s forever wars,” he has embarked on the militarization of the U.S., sending National Guard troops into Democratic cities like L.A., Washington, D.C. and Memphis.
He has attacked the weakest countries in the world.
“I’m not going to start a war,” Trump said after being reelected in 2024. “I’m going to stop the wars.”
A month after being inaugurated, he bombed Somalia to get rid of Isis rebels, who in their black masks, camo and ammo belts look just like ICE agents that have swept up
illegal immigrants without criminal records – 75 percent of the total detained – and killed two American citizens. Since then, the US has bombed Somalia over 100 times, including in January.
In March, he bombed Iraq, again targeting Isis.
He launched more than 1,000 strikes on Yemen, targeting Houthi rebels.
In June, he bombed Iran, claiming to “totally destroy” the country’s nuclear enrichment sites. He must have lied because he accused the country of building more nuclear weaponry in his State of the Union address.
He has bombed more than 40 so-called narco-terrorist boats in the Caribbean, killing more than 140 people, with no formal charges or trials. He offered no proof of drug smuggling. The killings were extrajudicial. Then kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from Venezuela.
In December, Trump bombed Isis sites in Syria.
On Christmas, he bombed Isis sites in Nigeria.
On Feb. 28, Trump and Israel teamed up to attack Iran again, bombing nine cities in the country, killing the country’s supreme leader and many top-tier officials. Trump called for the overthrow of the government there.
None of these countries present an immediate threat to the U.S. According to Global Fire Power, out of 145 countries, Somalia’s military ranked 137 in fire power; Yemen ranked 135; Syria 87; Iraq, 54; Venezuela, 51; Nigeria, 33; Iran, 16.
The U.S. ranked number 1.
“The United States began major combat operations in Iran,” Trump announced in a video released in the middle of the night Feb. 28. He called the government there “a vicious group of very hard, terrible people” who presented an immediate threat to America. “They can never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “The U.S. military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked and radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground… We’re going to annihilate their navy… The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war.”
That’s hardly America First or stopping wars.
The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the sole power to declare war and Congress authorized none of the Trump’s bombing raids or the kidnapping of Maduro. Trump presented his claims of Iran’s nuclear threat and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the U.S without evidence – echoes of George W. Bush’s false claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the forever war that unfolded there.
Trump’s actions violate international law, which prohibits strikes on countries without proof of an imminent threat.
Congress has been essentially supine, allowing the increasingly authoritarian Trump to intensify his warmongering against the weak of the world without checks or balances.
Who’s next? Cuba, ranking 65th in global military fire power? Denmark and Greenland at 45? Canada at 28? Mexico at 36?
Trump’s bully pulpit has devolved into America’s bully war pit.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
